re-post from the game thread: I'm hoping it's something mechanical and not his arm. I haven't been seeing that nasty late breaking cut fastball that he was living off of early. Everything hard seems very straight recently. I don't think people remember just how good he was in the first half: through June (84 games) he had a 2.12 ERA, .179 .211 .268 .479 slash line, 35:4 K:BB, .765 WHIP in 34 IP. Since then he's walking more guys, slash line of .219 .284 .452 .736, K rate has actually gone up, but way more HR and XBH.
The homer to Yelich is what it is, but it's the attitude, the body language, that bs nonchalant throw to first base that should've ended the inning. Then he proceeds to smoke the very next better. I don't know if it's a focus thing, immaturity, or what. Whatever it is he needs to snap out of it.
I think the Astros need to sit down with Osuna after the season and tell him to scrap the 12 different deliveries. Most pitchers have a hard time keeping one set of mechanics straight. He also seems to fall in love with his fastball too much and doesn't locate it very well which is why I said scrap his different deliveries. 0-2 pitch against Yellich and he leaves it up and out over the plate. That pitch needs to be well up and out of the strikezone. Cole did it earlier in the game. He had Yellich down 1-2 and went well above the zone with a fastball and Yellich chased for the K.
He pitches like a guy who doesn't just believe, but KNOWS that he's better than every single batter he faces. It's almost like he gets bored striking guys out with his normal delivery so he tries to be cute with the quick pitch or delayed leg kick. Someone like Cole or Verlander (along with Brent) needs to grab him by his ear, and tell him to cut the ****. He needs to be reminded that he ain't that good, and there are plenty of guys that can (and have) caught up to that fastball. If something is mechanically wrong, let's ****ing fix it. If your arm is hurt, tell someone and sit some games out. But whatever it is, we're in September now and October is right around the bend.
Pretty much agree with this for the most part. I think it’s maturity and focus. He had much to prove when the Astros took a chance and traded for him. Now he’s seemingly cruising along ho hum. He has the arm and stuff to be great and he very much was that first half of the season. Something seems to be going on mentally imo. I’ll say it again...Why challenge CY in the zone when you have him in a hole 0-2? Make him chase a couple. The throw to first was a bs effort and it seemed to be 100% mental. Get your head on straight and come out with more fire.
I've spoken in the past about how it's interesting to have a more diverse closer than your standard power fastball + power slider closer. When he's good. But there is a reason that the latter stands the test of time: it's simple and it works. The best power closers know what they're there to do, have practiced and learned how to maintain control over their main pitches, and have the gas behind them to make small mistakes and still get the swing and miss. What Osuna's trying to do is be cerebral, but honestly, he doesn't have the cerebellum of JV, GC, or ZG to do it. Or the time. He's in there to face a batter one time and make an out. And with little room for error in a save situation. There's little room to experiment and prod and poke a batter that's on higher alert than normal already. I think he has the same problem as McHugh: lots of diversity, but no mastery of anything. He needs to cut back on the combinations of deliveries and pitches and then only add stuff back when he's damn good at doing the basics like keeping the ball away from the center of the plate. There's nothing wrong with that. A drummer that has a huge drum set and practices all sorts of complicated fills isn't worth anything if he can't simply stay on the beat (speaking as a drummer that did exactly that when he first learned drum set.)
